We are, by nature, a generous people. This is seen mostly when campaigns are held to collect money for people in need. It happens also when political parties call upon the people to donate cash although, in this case, half of the population gives to one side, and half gives to the other. But that’s to be expected.

Last year, the World Giving Index established Malta as the country with the best record when it comes to the percentage of people who give money. A staggering 83% of the Maltese interviewed said that they gave money to charity.

This year, we are no longer in the top place. The percentage of people who have donated money, according to the World Giving Index, has dropped to 65%, and we are now in sixth place. This is quite a big jump in just 12 months, and we do hope that this will not be reflected in next Monday’s l-Istrina collection in aid of the Community Chest Fund.

But there were some positive aspects from the same report. This is because it was established that more Maltese found the time to do voluntary work and more Maltese are inclined to help strangers. The percentage rose from 21% to 25% in the first instance, and from 40% to 45% in the second.

Both percentages are still below the halfway line, but at least there was an improvement over the previous year. Still, it is also hoped that the number of Maltese who give up part of their free time to help others should rise to more than just one in every four.

Often, we tend to give money just to appease our conscience by doing something to help the less fortunate. Giving monetary donations gives us a sense of satisfaction that we are doing our little bit for the community.

But while this is extremely important and should continue to be a way of showing solidarity, we should also realise that people in need not only need money, but they also need assistance in other ways. And one way of doing it is through time spent doing some odd job for someone who is unable to carry out such work, or even spending time talking to a person who is alone and lonely.

With regard to helping strangers, it is good to note that nearly half the population is ready to stop and give assistance to people they do not know. It would be interesting to know, however, whether this assistance is also afforded to people of a different race or colour.